City reaching out with new website

A City of Marlow project under construction since last summer is ready for testing. However, the testing will be done online via computer.
This city recently constructed a website (www.cityofmarlow.com) to help the community and city visitors.
Community Services Director Jason McPherson said it was one of the first projects he received when he came on board with the city.
McPherson started by looking at websites of cities of similar size around the state in order to get ideas.
“Some cities’ websites were great, but there were others where we didn’t want to go there,” McPherson said.
McPherson called around to other cities and spoke to administrators. A look at Cache’s website piqued his interest.
“It was a basic and simple design,” McPherson said. “I got to the bottom and saw it was designed by Spunky Monkey. I called and left messages for them and two or three others, and they are the only ones who called me back.”
It turned out to be a good thing. The owners of the business live in the Lawton area. One is a former county government employee and the other is still on Comanche County’s payroll, so they are aware of what Marlow was looking for.
“They were very helpful,” McPherson said. “I didn’t realize how labor intensive building a website was. There is content and how it looks. There are times when we need to change this or tweak that.”
“Almost on any project, you want to work with someone big enough to make it happen, but still small enough to understand how we want it to work,” McPherson said. “This is an information site. We want people to be connected to the city. We want it to work for both the residents of Marlow and the visitors.”
The website includes information about city services and who to contact. It also features the new city logo, which will begin appearing on city correspondence.
The current website is a rough, first edition of what the city hopes it will become. The city intends to offer online bill payment for city bills.
McPherson said the electronic bill pay will not begin until the new city hall opens, scheduled for late April. Citizens will have four ways to pay city bills; electronically, in-person, drive-through, and night drop-box.
Electronic bill pay will likely go through the OK.gov website. There is a $1 fee for paying online which goes to the state.
“This is not the final product, it is more like a first draft,” McPherson said. “We will run as-is for a while. We are taking notes on what people are calling about.
“On the very first day we had the page up, someone called about not being able to find a city limits map. It was added to the list.
“This is no replacement of the customer service we have here at City Hall, it is just another way to connect with the community.”